hewi'tt] legends 379 



power." "But," said he, "I must go. I want to see my brothers 

 very much." " You will never see them," she replied. " They are 

 dead." "Well, can not I kill the old men?" he said. "Maybe you 

 can," she replied, "if you take my orenda (magic power) with 

 you." " Well, mother," said Ot'hegwenhda, " give me your magic 

 power. I want to kill these men." " 1 will go and bring my magic 

 power, my son," said his mother. Thereupon the Hongak woman 

 went westward to a rough and rocky place, where she got a small fig- 

 urine of slate rock, about half the length of her little finger, with 

 which she returned to her home. When she had reached home the 

 boy was ready to start. He had armed himself with a bow of hickory 

 and arrows of red willow pointed with wasp stings. " Here," said 

 the mother, " I will tell you what to do. Gird on a belt and put this 

 fetish in it." He placed the fetish between his buckskin belt and his 

 body. " You are now ready," said the mother. " Now you can do 

 what you like. You can change yourself to whatever form you 

 please." 



Ot'hegwenhda, going northward as his brothers had done, found a 

 fresh trail looking as if made only a few minutes before. " This 

 must be my father's trail," thought he; "perhaps I will find him 

 somewhere." After a while he came to the cross-trail running east 

 and west ; he stood thinking whence it came and whither it led. " I 

 will see," said he. Going toward the east, he soon reached a wide 

 opening in the forest, near the end of which was a cloud of dust mov- 

 ing in his direction. " I will hurry back," thought he, " or something 

 may happen to me." The moment he turned back the great dust 

 cloud approached very quickly, and when it touched him, from weak- 

 ness he fell to the ground. Soon after this he heard a noise, and, 

 looking up, saw a person with long legs, rushing on toward him. 

 Springing to his feet, the youth climbed a tree; and then he shot his 

 wasp-sting pointed arrows, thus killing the stranger in the cloud of 

 dust. This stranger was a Djieien (Spider). 



Now Ot'hegwenhda went eastward again, and another cloud of dust 

 rushed against him, but he got outside of it, and after the cloud had 

 passed, he hastened westward to the point where the trails crossed. 

 Thence, going northward, he soon reached the lodge where the four 

 old brothers, Hadiiades (Blacksnakes), sat smoking. After stand- 

 ing outside a while, he found a crack in the lodge; peeping in, he 

 saw the four old men in the four corners, at which he soliloquized : 

 " I wonder whether these are the men of whom my mother spoke. I 

 will kill them if I can, and if I can not, I will burn the lodge." Tak- 

 ing out the fetish, he placed it on his head, whereupon it stood up, 

 and he said, " I am going to ask you a question ; I want you to tell me 

 what to do ; I want to kill these old men." The fetish answered : 

 "If you want to kill them, you must get on that high rock and call 



